Tom Webster at Edison Research put together a great report on the subject. I’ll send you the link to the extended version but I’ve tried to grab the highlights here and paraphrase them to save you some time.

A 2008 survey concluded that only 5% of Americans (this was a study done exclusively in the States so all of the data is American. We can assume that, as with most trends, Canada would follow similar percentage comparisons) were aware of the service Twitter.

By 2010 though that number jumped to 87% of Americans! A staggering number considering that only 85% of American’s have access to the internet.

That’s 17 million Americans (over the age of 12) using Twitter in 2010.

Even though awareness is now equal to that of Facebook, 6 times more American’s are using Facebook than Twitter and 50% of the population over the age of 12 maintains at least 1 social networking site.

So it looks, on the surface, like Facebook is winning the Social Media race. However, people use Facebook and Twitter for different reasons. The ability to post photos and more information on FB seems to appeal to more of the population but Twitter users like the immediacy of updates. Especially for things like breaking news.

Also Twitter users are 3 times more likely to follow specific brands on Twitter. A large percentage of users not only seek out information on products and services, they also comment on them and re-tweet to their own followers. (for better or for worse, depending on their experience)

As for WHO is using Twitter in 2010. The following graph from Tom Webster’s report shows that (and I was pretty surprised by this) the fastest growing group seem to be the older generation.

People over the age of 55 are getting online and onboard and embracing the technology.

Good to know!

Another interesting, and not really that surprising, stat to note is that 1 in 3 monthly users are between the ages of 25 and 34 and, of those, 53% are women.

That represents a demographic with more disposable income (pre-kids) and more technical chops. 42% of them use the service to learn about products and services, 31% ask for opinions of others about products, companies and services they’re interested in and 28% look for sales and discounts.

Hmmm, looks like Twitter is probably a great place to advertise your brand!

Keep in mind that simply creating an account does not mean you’ve got an established Social Media campaign. You’ll need to work the service consistently, providing useful information for your followers in a way that will attract more to your company and your online presence.

You could spend countless man(woman) hours doing that yourself or you could hire a professional team to help you.

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This site was created to compliment North and West Vancouver Realtor, Elizabeth Dyer's, growing real estate business. Liz felt that providing people with real experiences from the North Shore would help them get a true feel for what it's like to live in this amazing place. The site is growing daily with new posts and new tech like vlog posts!

I created this site for my daughter Layne who is just about to graduate high school. We worked on it together as a tool to help her realize her dream of becoming an Interior Designer. The site is used for post-secondary admissions and scholarship opportunities. It also showcases many of Layne's extra curricular activities.

Jacquie McCarnan is the National Director of Social Media and Online Outreach for the Women In Leadership Foundation. She is also "keeper of the brand". With chapters in 4 Canadian cities, the WIL online presence is an extremely intricate part of the Foundation's overall community outreach.
We conceived and built individual sites for each chapter, trained each chapter rep and provide continued support through the national head office site.
By giving the chapters some autonomy to construct their own content we have seen a considerable increase in online engagement; not only from the website(s) but from all social media outlets as well.
We also initiated, planned and constructed processes to make the social media engagement a turn-key solution for each chapter since all chapter members are volunteers.
In less than a year WIL has become the most robust online presence of all Canadian women-centric non-profits. (big round of applause :)

“I started Social Media Canada in 2008 to help others realize the power of Social Media to affect change. Since then so much has changed. Social Media is now used to inform, to condemn, to inspire, to do just about anything. There's a lot to know and I'm here to help you learn!”